Jim Silver
Jim Silver
attempt attractive barbie brought great ken lots older publicity split woman
The split with Ken was a great publicity gimmick. It brought Barbie lots of attention. The attempt is to reposition Barbie as a single, independent woman and to make her attractive to an older demographic,
boundaries changed companies consider innovation kids might playing pushing shape
Companies are really pushing the boundaries with innovation. We'll see things that you might not typically consider to be a toy. That's because the whole shape of what kids are playing with now has changed dramatically.
february last three
The February show has really transformed over the last three years.
approaches chooses companies deal deals industry order toy ultimately understood
In order for the toy industry to survive, companies will have to deal with Wal-Mart. It has to be understood that Wal-Mart doesn't make deals with everyone who approaches them. Ultimately it's Wal-Mart who chooses who will be in their stores.
electronic entertainment geared kids
Electronic entertainment geared for kids is especially big this year.
perform products tough
It is very tough for products to get into Wal-Mart and if they don't perform well, they're out.
customers draw extremely
It's going to be extremely competitive to draw customers to their stores.
hot licensed push sales tough toy
It was a tough year, ... We didn't have a hot toy and we didn't have a big movie to push sales of licensed products.
aisle category enjoys everybody family fun games interested people playing point return
The whole point is to get people interested in playing games again. If you get them into the game aisle and a family enjoys playing a game, they'll return to the game aisle. It's reintroducing them to a play that's fun and everybody in the category benefits.
call entertainment family industry longer per toy toys
The way I see it, the toy industry is no longer just about toys per se. I call it the family entertainment business.
biggest growth tech trend
The biggest trend in 2005 is the growth of the tech toys.
either problem sells since site target toy toys web
They could either go to Target or try to find another toy retailer like K-B Toys. You would think Target first, since it is already their partner, but the one problem with that is Target has its own Web site where it sells toys -- and how much will Target want to give up?
brand built catalog developed following girl hard loyal strictly three throughout
American Girl had done it strictly catalog and online, before they built the three stores. They developed this brand throughout the years, they have a loyal following and it's very hard to do.
consumer expanding experts hot instead keeping maybe relationship room several trend
Room decor is a hot trend right now and several toymakers are expanding into it, ... But I don't think toymakers should try to become experts in every area. That's going to be very difficult. Maybe with consumer electronics, it could make sense to have a licensing relationship with another manufacturer instead of keeping it in-house.